11/15/2009

"The reason people are poor in America is not because they lack money, it's because poor people in America lack values, character, and the ability to work hard."

Bill CunninghamConservative Radio Talk Show Host

"Every American kid should be required to watch videotape of the poor in New Orleans and see how they suffered because they couldn't get out of town. And then every teacher should tell the students, "If you refuse to learn, if you refuse to work hard, if you become addicted, if you live a gangsta life, you will be poor and powerless just like man of those in New Orleans."

1 comment:

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” True enough. But his construction begs the question: Who is We? That is, who, exactly, is paying the price?

Is it only the upper income folks? (You know, the ones with the capital and incentive to invest, start businesses, employ people, and create wealth) Or is it only the middle and upper income folks, who not only invest and employ but also manage and maintain? On the other hand, do the lower income brackets – who have all the liberty and political freedoms (and privileges, i.e. the franchise) of anyone else in society, and who enjoy the benefits of the “civilization” afforded by our self-government – have any obligation to pay the price?

We know that the current, radically progressive tax scheme in this country leaves the top 1% of income earners paying 37% of all taxes after collecting only 19% of all income. We know that the top 5% of all income earners pay 57% of all taxes after earning only 33% of all income. Top 25% of income earners? They pay 85% of all taxes on 66% of all income.

How about the bottom 50% of income earners? They earn 13% of all income, but pay only 3% of all taxes. Sounds like a pretty good bargain on civilization for them.

Anyway, your flat tax cartoon is certainly correct. A flat tax – which asks each to pay according in a single fair-share percentage – would certainly increase the paltry amount the bottom 50% of all income earners contribute to a civilization they enjoy in equal measure with the top 50%.

Perhaps if the people voting for politicians who like to recklessly spend other peoples money had to actually pay in fair share for that fiscal irresponsibility, they would be a bit more circumspect on just who they are putting in charge of the nation’s finances.

Tell me again: just how high is that $1.2 Trillion stack of one dollar bills?